Elliott Broidy, the ex-deputy finance chair of the Republican National Committee, will stop making payments on the 1.6 million hush money agreement he made with a former Playboy model, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The Journal had previously reported that Broidy made the agreement — negotiated during the 2016 campaign by Trump lawyer Michael Cohen — with former model Shera Bechard, to be paid in eight installments.

In exchange, Bechard would keep quiet about an affair with Broidy, who is married.

However, Broidy’s attorney Chris Clark says that this deal is null and void because Bechard’s former attorney Keith Davidson leaked details of the agreement to Michael Avenatti, who is currently representing Stormy Daniels.

Now if you are thinking, “Well then doesn’t this prove that Broidy is actually the person that had the affair with Bechard, and put to rest the theory that he was covering for Donald Trump?” well not so fast.

There are several reasons why this argument doesn’t appear to make any sense:

• Even if Davidson improperly disclosed information to Avenatti (he denies doing so), such a disclosure wouldn’t be legal grounds for voiding the agreement between Broidy and Bechard. Broidy’s remedy in this situation would be to sue Davidson for damages, not to unilaterally cancel his agreement with Bechard. After all, there’s no allegation that Bechard violated the agreement, and, at the time Davidson allegedly did so, he wasn’t even Bechard’s lawyer anymore.

• If Broidy is doing this to try to save money, he’s making a very odd calculation. He still owes $1.2 million to Bechard, which certainly isn’t a trivial sum, even for someone as rich as he appears to be. But using Latham & Watkins to litigate the matter (disclosure: I was once an associate at this firm) would surely eliminate a great deal if not all of any potential savings from not going through with the agreement, even assuming — which at the moment seems highly optimistic — that Broidy would eventually prevail on the merits.

• Chris Clark is a white-collar criminal-defense lawyer. Indeed, Broidy employed Clark when he was prosecuted a decade ago for bribing officials in the New York State comptroller’s office (Clark worked out a plea deal, in which Broidy testified against seven officials in exchange for pleading guilty to a single felony charge). Why is Broidy using a criminal-defense specialist to litigate a contract dispute? One possibility here is that Broidy is backing out of the contract on Clark’s advice, because the NDA is actually a bribe to Trump, and, by not paying the rest of that bribe, Clark’s client would be lessening his criminal liability.

• By claiming that their agreement is void, Broidy is putting Bechard in a position to tell her story — whatever it may actually be — in whatever forum she likes.

I know, right?

So to be clear this could be a case of Broidy trying to reduce his culpability in case the Mueller team is turning its attention in his direction, or it could simply be a case of Broidy recognizing that the Trump ship is taking on water and wanting to get off before it pulls him down in the undertow.

Either way, if it really was Trump who knocked up this Playboy model and his baby that she aborted, it is probably something we are about to learn for sure one way or the other.

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15 Comments

I wonder if paying for an abortion to his mistress would finally bring Trump down… naa, the evangelicals would make an excuse for him.

Anonymous
July 3, 2018 at 12:32 pm

First of all, just having a mistress should have been enough for those Christians, HA HA, they are so in denial.

As for the abortion, they can justify it by saying it was the slut that got the abortion, so she is the sinner.

Gryphen
July 3, 2018 at 12:39 pm

Yeah, unless Bechard’s story is that Trump both insisted on and paid for the abortion.

He’ll still skate, but it will be yet another blow to his reputation with the Evangelicals.

Lewsiffer
July 3, 2018 at 9:47 pm

christians are the worst people in the world, also too some of the dumbest. Why would anyone think that anything is too low for them to accept from their dear leader?

Anonymous
July 4, 2018 at 4:02 am

Trump could pay for dozens of abortions and the Xian Right would care less. They have their man to repeal Roe v Wade and to stick it to “the Gays” those two are the only things narrow minded people can recite from the Bible.

Anonymous
July 3, 2018 at 12:31 pm

OMG, so where are they going to shop? At the ‘elite” stores?
====================================
Trump supporters are boycotting Walmart over “Impeach 45” merchandise

Walmart has joined the ranks of Keurig, Starbucks, and the NFL as the target of a conservative boycott push. At issue: apparel calling for President Donald Trump’s impeachment.

It began when tweets started to pop up this week showing clothing, including baby onesies and T-shirts, available for sale on Walmart’s website reading “Impeach 45” and other items that said “Impeach Trump.” Walmart isn’t the producer of the items — rather, they’re sold by third-party merchants on its platform — but as with so many things on Twitter, that nuance wasn’t picked up. Soon, #BoycottWalmart started to trend……

I bet the old creep got a huge kick out of people thinking he did it but if he’s not paying then he clearly did not, because it would just be asking for a bucket of trouble if he refused to pay out the contract.

Anonymous
July 3, 2018 at 6:29 pm

Trump has probably failed to reimburse him and he’s cutting his losses.

Anonymous
July 3, 2018 at 5:08 pm

I lived Nixon, Gryph, early high school and remember it well,
No one is going to do jack. March in the streets all you want, the smug are going to sit.
Re-elect me come November, I know the words to say, and FUCK YOU when they are.

Since HE voided the deal she can talk AND keep the money. Hope she’s smart enough not to sell her story to the National Enquirer.

Anonymous
July 3, 2018 at 11:46 pm

of possible jail time> “He also falsely denied that marital rape is illegal, and bragged about how he “destroy[ed]” the life of a young “idiot” beauty queen—all in the name of Trump, for whom Cohen had claimed he would take a “bullet” or jump out of a building.

Now, in just a matter of weeks, Cohen has gone from top pitbull to actively floating the prospect of cooperating with federal investigators—“snitching,” ““Michael Cohen is too concerned right now with his reputation and attempting to repair his reputation, as opposed to simply doing the right thing,” said Michael Avenatti, the Stormy Daniels attorney who has become a chief Cohen antagonist. “If he was a true patriot who had ‘love of country’ at the top of his priority list, then he would disclose what he knows, come clean, and do the right thing…”

I’m still betting Trump is the one who knocked up the Playmate and Broidy was paid to take the fall. Shortly after Broidy paid off the lady, he was awarded with government contracts by the Trump Administration.